The Light & Islamic Review, July-September 2004
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
“Call to the path of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with people in the best manner.” (Holy Quran, 16:125) The Light AND ISLAMIC REVIEW Exponent of Islam and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for over eighty years July – September 2004 In the spirit of the above-cited verse, this periodical attempts to dispel misunderstandings about the religion of Islam and endeavors to facilitate inter-faith dialogue based on reason and rationality. Vol. 81 CONTENTS No. 3 The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement and the Reform of Albanian Islam in the Inter-War Period . .3 By Nathalie Clayer Dowie: A sign to America and the World (Part 2) . .12 By Muhammad Sadiq, Columbus Ohio Truth Unveiled: a response to the book ‘Unveiling Islam’ by Ergun Mehmet Caner and Emir Fethi Caner . .15 Compiled by Directors of AAIIL, Inc. USA Published on the World-Wide Web at: www.muslim.org ◆ Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore Inc., U.S.A. ◆ P.O. Box 3370, Dublin, Ohio 43016, U.S.A. 2 THE LIGHT ■ JULY – SEPTEMBER 2004 The Light was founded in 1921 as the organ of the AHMADIYYA ANJUMAN ISHA‘AT ISLAM (Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam) of About ourselves Lahore, Pakistan. The Islamic Review was published in England from 1913 for over 50 years, and in the U.S.A. from 1980 Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore to 1991. The present periodical represents the beliefs of the worldwide has branches in many countries including: branches of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam, Lahore. U.S.A. Australia ISSN: 1060–4596 U.K. Canada Holland Fiji Editorial Board: Directors of AAIIL, Inc., USA Indonesia Germany Suriname India Circulation: Mrs. Samina Malik. Trinidad South Africa Guyana Contact information: ‘The Light’, P.O. Box 3370, Dublin, Ohio 43016, U.S.A. Achievements: Phone: 614 – 873 1030 • Fax: 614 – 873 1022 The Anjuman has produced extensive literature on Islam, originally in English and E-mails: [email protected] • [email protected] Urdu, including translations of the Website: www.muslim.org Holy Quran with commentaries. These books are being translated into other languages, including French, German, Spanish, Dutch, The main object of the A.A.I.I.L. is to present the true, original message of Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. The Anjuman Islam to the whole world — Islam as it is found in the Holy Quran and the has run several Muslim missions around the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, obscured today by grave misconcep- world, including the first ever in Western tions and wrong popular notions. Europe. Islam seeks to attract the hearts and minds of people towards the truth, by means of reasoning and the natural beauty of its principles. History: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (d. 1908), our Founder, arose to remind the 1889: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founds world that Islam is: the Ahmadiyya Movement. 1901: Movement given name Ahmadiyya International: It recognizes prophets being raised among all nations after Holy Prophet Muhammad’s other and requires Muslims to believe in them all. Truth and goodness famous name Ahmad. can be found in all religions. God treats all human beings equally, regardless of race, nationality or religion. 1905: Hazrat Mirza appoints central body (Anjuman) to manage the Movement. Peaceful: Allows use of force only in unavoidable self-defence. 1908: Death of Hazrat Mirza. Succeeded by Teaches Muslims to live peacefully under any rule which accords Maulana Nur-ud-Din as Head. them freedom of religion. 1914: Death of Maulana Nur-ud-Din. Tolerant: Gives full freedom to everyone to hold and practise any Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam creed or religion. Requires us to tolerate differences of belief and founded at Lahore as continuation of the opinion. original Anjuman. Maulana Muhammad Ali elected as Head. Rational: In all matters, it urges use of human reason and knowledge. Blind following is condemned and independence of thought is 1951: Death of Maulana Muhammad Ali granted. after fifty years of glorious service to the cause of Islam. Maulana Sadr-ud-Din Inspiring: Worship is not a ritual, but provides living contact with a (d. 1981) becomes Head. Living God, Who answers prayers and speaks to His righteous ser- 1981–1996: vants even today as in the past. Dr Saeed Ahmad Khan, an emi- nent medical doctor and religious schol- Non-sectarian: Every person professing Islam by the words La ilaha ar, led the Movement, at a time of ill-Allah, Muhammad-ur rasul-ullah (There is no god but Allah, intense persecution. and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) is a Muslim. A Muslim 1996–2002: Prof. Dr Asghar Hameed, a cannot be expelled from Islam by anyone. distinguished retired University Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad taught that no prophet, old or new, is to arise Professor of Mathematics, and learned Islamic scholar, served as Head. after the Holy Prophet Muhammad. However, Mujaddids will be raised by God to revive and rekindle the light of Islam. 2002: Prof. Dr Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha elected Head. JULY – SEPTEMBER 2004 ■ THE LIGHT 3 The Lahore Ahmadiyya Albania could not do otherwise than be a target of choice for a Muslim missionary organisation such as the Lahore Movement and the Reform branch of the Ahmadi movement, active in Europe since of Albanian Islam in the 1912. In 1927, when the representatives of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at al-Islam made contact with the Albanian Inter-War Period Islamic Community, they had, indeed, already successful- ly established a mission at Woking, south of London, some By Nathalie Clayer fifteen years previously. Moreover, they had just estab- [This article is an English translation of a paper appear- lished another mission in Berlin.4 It was on the strength of ing in French in 2004 under the title (when translated): this infrastructure and of their publications in English and “The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement and the Reform of German that the Assistant Secretary of the organisation, Albanian Islam in the Inter-War Period”. The author of the Muhammad Manzur Ilahi, entered into correspondence article, Dr. Nathalie Clayer, has approved this translation, with the leaders of Albanian Islam and sent them some of by Selim Ahmed of UK, and granted permission for its pub- the Lahori Ahmadi network’s productions.5 Part of the first lication here.] exchanges of letters between Lahore and Tirana was pub- In 1927, after seven years of freshly acquired independ- lished in 1927 in the Albanian Muslim Community’s jour- ence, Albania began to stabilise and undergo political nal Zani i naltë (The Supreme Voice). The two letters of reform.1 The ‘umbilical cord’ that used to bind the Islamic Muhammad Manzur Ilahi thus published are quite illumi- Community of this small Balkan country2 with a Muslim nating as to the way in which the Lahore Ahmadiyya majority to Istanbul was at that time once and for all sev- Movement tried to attract the Albanian Muslim leaders and ered. On the one hand, the setting up of national religious as to its intention in making this approach. structures in 1923, on the other the abolition of the The first letter is quite short. Through its missionary Caliphate and the suppression of the medrese’s [Medrese is activities in Europe, the Anjuman wishes to demonstrate the Turkish form of the Arabic madrasah — Translator.] that it is the promoter of a progressive Islam that “is to in Turkey in 1924, as well as the closing of the tekke’s bring salvation from destruction by the forces of material- [Dervish lodges (Turkish, from Arabic) — Translator.] the ism”. It wishes to encourage and assist the Albanian following year, brought to an end the organic links that Muslims, “surrounded by enemies on all sides”, to advance were in existence from a religious point of view between themselves spiritually in order to surpass these “enemies”. this former province of the Ottoman Empire and the centre It suggests, therefore, that they read Ahmadi literature and on which it depended. It was at that point that the leaders set the Albanian people on “the sure path to progress”.6 In of this Islamic Community received a letter from the the second letter, the Assistant Secretary of the Anjuman ‘Muslim Community of India’. The latter introduced itself more specifically requests the leadership of the Albanian as having missions in England, Germany, America and Islamic Community to translate the English translation of Africa, as having already converted “over a hundred the Koran,7 of which he has sent a copy, and this for “the English people” and “about a hundred Germans” and hav- spiritual, moral and material advancement of the Albanian ing built mosques in England and Germany: an Islamic people”. The argument put forward by Muhammad community which seems, therefore, to display a mission- Manzur Ilahi is that this translation lies behind a new spir- ary dynamism in the very heart of Europe. it in the Muslim world, particularly among young educat- In the following years, a relationship would be estab- ed Muslims, likewise an expansion of Islam in Europe. lished between the Albanian Islamic Community and this Indeed, the Islam offered to the Albanian Muslim leaders ‘Muslim Community of India’, or more exactly of Lahore, has three main characteristics. It has made it possible to in this case the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at al-Islam respond to attacks from the enemies of Islam and above all (‘Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam).3 from Christians. It can win over Europe and the Christians What form did these connections take and why this influ- thanks to its spiritual power, a power that will put an end ence on the part of an Indian missionary organisation both to the political and to the economic confusions of the among the Albanian Muslims in the Inter-War Period? It is Muslim world.